Anne Hathaway To Play Catwoman, Tom Hardy As Bane

- January 20, 2011 | 2:37 PM IST

Move over Halle Berry, it’s Anne Hathaway’s turn to wear the skinsuit for the role of Catwoman aka Selina Kyle. Confirming the news, Warner Brothers have added that Tom Hardy will be playing Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.

Anne Hathaway, last seen in Love and Other Drugs and Alice in Wonderland, will don the sexy black catsuit for the role of the cat burglar with an on/off romantic relationship with Batman. The role of the temperamental catwoman was previously played by Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns (1992) and Halle Berry in Catwoman (2004).

Tom Hardy will play Bane, the genius military strategist driven insane by the super soldier serum ‘venom’. More importantly, Bane’s claim to fame is that he broke Batman’s spine in the Batcave in the classic, “Knightfall”, forcing Bruce Wayne to step aside for a while. Hardy is known for his roles as Eames in Christopher Nolan’s mind boggler, Inception and as Handsome Bob in director Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla.

Christopher Nolan stated, “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Anne Hathaway, who will be a fantastic addition to our ensemble as we complete our story…I am delighted to be working with Tom again and excited to watch him bring to life our new interpretation of one of Batman’s most formidable enemies.”

Christian Bale, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine will retain their roles as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Jim Gordon and Alfred respectively. This is Christopher Nolan’s third tryst with Batman after Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008). ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is set to release in July, 2012.